Let's Get to Chicago!

Our boat at sunset in Leland, MI Harbor

The forecast called for 20 knot winds out of the west with gusts to 25-30 knots and 4 to 7 foot seas.  This is a day to stay in harbor.   Over the last two weeks we have repeated this multiple times as Lake Michigan hasn’t been particularly cooperative.  Originally, we wanted to cross the Lake to experience Door County in Wisconsin, but that is now out of the question.  We are sticking to the eastern shore of the Lake in Michigan.  We feel under a little time pressure as we want to reach Chicago in time to enjoy the City and still make it through the Illinois River locks before they close for two weeks of maintenance on September 20^th.  Schedules aren’t good on the water.

Fishtown shop.

Fishtown boat and nets.

We used our extra time in Leland to explore this summer community.  Leland is home to Fishtown, the last surviving commercial fishing port on Lake Michigan as declining fish stocks wiped out all the others.  To maintain its viability, about two thirds of the numerous wooden fish houses now house various tourist shops.  Another Leland draw is Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, one of the most beautiful spots in Michigan.  The Park is twenty miles outside of town, however.  How could we get there?

Walking up Sleeping Bear Dune.
Glen Lake is in the background.

Are we there yet?

We make it to the Lake Michigan.

This part of Michigan is still rural.  There is no Uber or Lyft, and the nearest rental car is 25 miles away in Traverse City.  Fortunately, we found retired business owner Johnnie who runs a pickup service when he wants to work.  Johnnie picked us up in his Cadillac and served as our tour guide.  After a tour of town, he dropped us off at Sleeping Bear, telling us to take whatever time we needed.  We had no idea what to expect.  Walking barefoot and being misled by many false peaks, we trudged 2 miles, finally reached the shores of Lake Michigan.   Our round trip took close to two hours.  Johnnie must have taken a nap, and he was there waiting for us.  We have seen the large sand dunes on Cape Cod, but nothing compares to the dunes in Michigan.  They encompass most all of the eastern lakeshore and are often miles wide.  Sleeping Bear is the tallest, rising 450 feet about Lake Michigan. 

Sleeping Bear Dune from the water.

This is a beautiful state, but this Lake is beginning to wear on Molly.  Let’s just get to Chicago, and damn the gas mileage.  [Our boat gets 5 miles per gallon at 6 mph, 3 miles per gallon at 8 mpg and 1.2 miles per gallon at 20-25 miles per gallon.]  We leave all the Looper cruiser friends made to-date as they mostly have slow trawlers.  They will have to go down the Illinois River in October. 

Sunrise in the Les Cheneaux
Islands

We motored past  Mackinac Island
but didn't stop as we had visited before.

Our typical days on the water had been four hours to go 30 miles or so.  Now it is 5 or 6 hours to go 100 miles.  The pictures capture some of our stops, and now we find ourselves in Benton Harbor, 60 miles across the Lake from Chicago.  We anchor for two nights in the St. Joseph River, waiting for the latest gale to pass.  Finally, there is a one-day window opening on Wednesday (9/10) to cross to Chicago.

Finally got warm enough again to have cocktails on the bow
in Benton Harbor.

We are motoring out the River by 7 am, only to be stopped by the usually raised railroad bridge that is now lowered for a passing train.  After a 30 minute wait, we are finally on our way.

Happy to be in Chicago!

The Lake is cooperative, and three hours later the Chicago skyline towers over our boat.  What a sight.  We get a mooring in Monroe Harbor at the base of Millennium Park and the city center.  A call on our marine radio quickly brings out the launch boat to take us ashore.  Four days and nights later we have walked 30 miles and had a great sampling of the City - the River Walk modeled after San Antonio's,  the Art Institute, Lou Malnati’s Pizza, Adler Planetarium, Portillo’s Hot Dogs, Architectural Tour on a Chicago River cruise boat, the various city center parks, Navy Pier and the Centennial Ferris Wheel, Buckingham Fountain and the Red Line to a Cubs game.  Our pictures are below.

Chicago is the Windy City not because of its wind [although that would be fitting], but because its politicians a century or so ago didn't know when to stop talking about the virtues of their city.  According to legend that is why that got to host both the 1897 and the 1933 World Expos in the United States before many other cities hosted even one.

We just got picked up by the launch boat.

We are now starting down the rivers while our Looper friends remain stuck in various Lake Michigan ports due to the weather.  [One forecast had 13 foot seas in the open Lake.]  Today we entered the lock that separates Lake Michigan from the Chicago River, which used to flow into the Lake and now flows in the opposite direction.  As one tour guide noted, Chicago’s pollution used to end up in Lake Michigan.  Now it flows south to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico!  And, so will we.

While in Chicago we joined
24 other Loopers for Docktails.

Chagall's American Windows at the
Art Institute.

On the Architectural River Boat Cruise.

Everyone knows this -
American Gothic by
Grant Wood.

The game was a slugfest with Cubs winning 17-8.

Chicago's deep dish pizza.

Picasso's gift to Chicago.

Everyone calls it the Bean in Millennium Park, but to the
artist it is the Cloudy Gate.

Buckingham Fountain.

At the top of the Ferris Wheel.

The Cenntenial Ferris Wheel.

Candid shot of the Captain by the
Admiral in the Chicago River,

Willis Tower, still referred to by most as
The Sears Tower, was still in the clouds as
we left Chicago.

Salty Paws starting down the Chicago River.

Don't go swimming here.  Electric  shock is used to keep
invasive fish species like Carp from getting to the Great Lakes.

Here Salty Paws waits for the barge to pass between two stationary barges in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal
that connects the Chicago River and the Illinois River.

Piles of sand and other building materials and the barges that carry this material line the banks once we leave Chicago.

Recreational boats are given the lowest priority on the Illinois River locks.  Commerce is king.